A method based on distance measure for interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy group decision making

In this paper we introduce some relations and operations of interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy numbers and define some types of matrices, including interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy matrix, interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy similarity matrix and interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy equivalence matrix. We study their properties, develop a method based on distance measure for group decision making with interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy matrices and, finally, provide an illustrative example.     

直觉模糊多属性决策方法综述

直觉模糊多属性决策是当前决策领域的一个研究热点,在实际决策中有着广泛的应用.按照直觉模糊集的发展形式:直觉模糊集、区间直觉模糊集、直觉三角模糊数和直觉梯形模糊数,分别介绍它们在多属性决策与群决策中的研究现状,并对其未来的发展方向进行了探讨与展望.     

多属性群决策的直觉梯形模糊数法

采用直觉梯形模糊数刻画专家的评价信息,提出一种新的多属性群决策方法.定义了直觉梯形模糊数的期望值、预期得分、有序加权集成算子和混合集成算子;建立了基于直觉梯形模糊数的多属性群决策模型;通过混合集成算子得到方案的群体综合评估值,根据期望值和预期得分给出群决策结果.实例分析验证了所提出方法的有效性.     

The inclusion-based TOPSIS method with interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy sets for multiple criteria group decision making

The technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) method is a well-known compromising method for multiple criteria decision analysis. This paper develops an extended TOPSIS method with an inclusion comparison approach for addressing multiple criteria group decision-making problems in the framework of interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy sets. Considering the relative agreement degrees and the importance weights of multiple decision makers, this paper presents a modified hybrid averaging method with an inclusion-based ordered weighted averaging operation for forming a collective decision environment. Based on the main structure of the TOPSIS method, this paper utilizes the concept of inclusion comparison possibilities to propose a new index for an inclusion-based closeness coefficient for ranking the alternatives. Additionally, two optimization models are established to determine the criterion weights for addressing situations in which the preference information is completely unknown or incompletely known. Finally, the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed methods are illustrated by a medical group decision-making problem.     

区间直觉模糊信息的集成方法及其在决策中的应用

对区间直觉模糊信息的集成方法进行了研究.定义了区间直觉模糊数的一些运算法则,并基于这些运算法则,给出区间直觉模糊数的加权算术和加权几何集成算子.定义了区间直觉模糊数的得分函数和精确函数,进而给出了区间直觉模糊数的一种简单的排序方法.最后提供了一种基于区间直觉模糊信息的决策途径,并进行了实例分析.     

A new approach for multiple attribute group decision making with interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy information

This paper proposes a novel method for multiple attribute group decision making (MAGDM) with interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy information. The interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy numbers of each expert preference matrix are first mapped into two dimensions. Thus, the values of each membership degree and non-membership degree are considered as points in the two-dimensional representation. Moreover, the distance between the points represents the variance among the different experts preferences. The preference points of the same character are considered as a point set. We employ the plant growth simulation algorithm (PGSA) to calculate the optimal rally points of every point set, the sum of whose Euclidean distances to other given points is minimal, and these optimal rally points reflect the preferences of the entire expert group. These points are used to establish an expert preference aggregation matrix. Suitable points from the matrix are chosen to constitute an ideal point matrix, a projection method is employed to calculate the sum of its Euclidean distance to the expert preference aggregation matrix, and the score of each alternative is evaluated. Finally, the overall ranking of alternatives is obtained. In addition, this study develops a process to evaluate the pros and cons of different aggregation methods. Two typical examples are presented to illustrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed approach.     

Induced generalized intuitionistic fuzzy OWA operator for multi-attribute group decision making

With respect to multi-attribute group decision making (MAGDM) problems in which both the attribute weights and the decision makers (DMs) weights take the form of real numbers, attribute values provided by the DMs take the form of intuitionistic fuzzy numbers, a new group decision making method is developed. Some operational laws, score function and accuracy function of intuitionistic fuzzy numbers are introduced at first. Then a new aggregation operator called induced generalized intuitionistic fuzzy ordered weighted averaging (IG-IFOWA) operator is proposed, which extend the induced generalized ordered weighted averaging (IGOWA) operator introduced by Merigo and Gil-Lafuente [Merigo, J. M., & Gil-Lafuente, A. M. (2009). The induced generalized OWA operator. Information Sciences, 179, 729-741] to accommodate the environment in which the given arguments are intuitionistic fuzzy sets that are characterized by a membership function and a non-membership function. Some desirable properties of the IG-IFOWA operator are studied, such as commutativity, idempotency, monotonicity and boundary. And then, an approach based on the IG-IFOWA and IFWA (intuitionistic fuzzy weighted averaging) operators is developed to solve MAGDM problems with intuitionistic fuzzy information. Finally, a numerical example is used to illustrate the developed approach.     

Power geometric operators of trapezoidal intuitionistic fuzzy numbers and application to multi-attribute group decision making

As a special intuitionistic fuzzy set on a real number set, trapezoidal intuitionistic fuzzy numbers (TrIFNs) have the better capability to model ill-known quantities. The purpose of this paper is to develop some power geometric operators of TrIFNs and apply to multi-attribute group decision making (MAGDM) with TrIFNs. First, the lower and upper weighted possibility means of TrIFNs are introduced as well as weighted possibility means. Hereby, a new lexicographic method is developed to rank TrIFNs. The Minkowski distance between TrIFNs is defined. Then, four kinds of power geometric operators of TrIFNs are investigated including the power geometric operator of TrIFNs, power weighted geometric operator of TrIFNs, power ordered weighted geometric operator of TrIFNs and power hybrid geometric operator of TrIFNs. Their desirable properties are discussed. Four methods for MAGDM with TrIFNs are respectively proposed for the four cases whether the weight vectors of attributes and DMs are known or unknown. In these methods, the individual overall attribute values of alternatives are generated by using the power geometric or power weighted geometric operator of TrIFNs. The collective overall attribute values of alternatives are determined through constructing the multi-objective optimization model, which is transformed into the goal programming model to solve. Thus, the ranking order of alternatives is obtained according to the collective overall attribute values of alternatives. Finally, the green supplier selection problem is illustrated to demonstrate the application and validation of the proposed method.     

Interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy mathematical programming method for hybrid multi-criteria group decision making with interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy truth degrees

As an important component of group decision making, the hybrid multi-criteria group decision making (MCGDM) is very complex and interesting in real applications. The purpose of this paper is to develop a novel interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy (IVIF) mathematical programming method for hybrid MCGDM considering alternative comparisons with hesitancy degrees. The subjective preference relations between alternatives given by each decision maker (DM) are formulated as an IVIF set (IVIFS). The IVIFSs, intuitionistic fuzzy sets (IFSs), trapezoidal fuzzy numbers (TrFNs), linguistic variables, intervals and real numbers are used to represent the multiple types of criteria values. The information of criteria weights is incomplete. The IVIFS-type consistency and inconsistency indices are defined through considering the fuzzy positive and negative ideal solutions simultaneously. To determine the criteria weights, we construct a novel bi-objective IVIF mathematical programming of minimizing the inconsistency index and meanwhile maximizing the consistency index, which is solved by the technically developed linear goal programming approach. The individual ranking order of alternatives furnished by each DM is subsequently obtained according to the comprehensive relative closeness degrees of alternatives to the fuzzy positive ideal solution. The collective ranking order of alternatives is derived through establishing a new multi-objective assignment model. A real example of critical infrastructure evaluation is provided to demonstrate the applicability and effectiveness of this method.     

Soft computing based on maximizing consensus and fuzzy TOPSIS approach to interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy group decision making

Multi-attribute group decision making (MAGDM) is an important research topic in decision theory. In recent decades, many useful methods have been proposed to solve various MAGDM problems, but very few methods simultaneously take them into account from the perspectives of both the ranking and the magnitude of decision data, especially for the interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy decision data. The purpose of this paper is to develop a soft computing technique based on maximizing consensus and fuzzy TOPSIS in order to solve interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy MAGDM problems from such two aspects of decision data. To this end, we first define a consensus index from the perspective of the ranking of decision data, for measuring the degree of consensus between the individual and the group. Then, we establish an optimal model based on maximizing consensus to determine the weights of experts. Following the idea of TOPSIS, we calculate the closeness indices of the alternatives from the perspective of the magnitude of decision data. To identify the optimal alternatives and determine their optimum quantities, we further construct a multi-choice goal programming model based on the derived closeness indices. Finally, an example is given to verify the developed method and to make a comparative analysis.     

Construction of admissible linear orders for interval-valued Atanassov intuitionistic fuzzy sets with an application to decision making

In this work we introduce a method for constructing linear orders between pairs of intervals by using aggregation functions. We adapt this method to the case of interval-valued Atanassov intuitionistic fuzzy sets and we apply these sets and the considered orders to a decision making problem.     

An approach for multiple attribute group decision making problems with interval-valued intuitionistic trapezoidal fuzzy numbers

This article proposes an approach to resolve multiple attribute group decision making (MAGDM) problems with interval-valued intuitionistic trapezoidal fuzzy numbers (IVITFNs). We first introduce the cut set of IVITFNs and investigate the attitudinal score and accuracy expected functions for IVITFNs. Their novelty is that they allow the comparison of IVITFNs by taking into accounting of the experts’ risk attitude. Based on these expected functions, a ranking method for IVITFNs is proposed and a ranking sensitivity analysis method with respect to the risk attitude is developed. To aggregate the information with IVITFNs, we study the desirable properties of the interval-valued intuitionistic trapezoidal fuzzy weighted geometric (IVITFWG) operator, the interval-valued intuitionistic trapezoidal fuzzy ordered weighted geometric (IVITFOWG) operator, and the interval-valued intuitionistic trapezoidal fuzzy hybrid geometric (IVITFHG) operator. It is worth noting that the aggregated value by using these operators is also an interval-valued intuitionistic trapezoidal fuzzy value. Then, based on these expected functions and aggregating operators, an approach is proposed to solve MAGDM problems in which the attribute values take the form of interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy numbers and the expert weights take the form of real numbers. Finally, an illustrative example is given to verify the developed approach and to demonstrate its practicality and effectiveness.     

Aggregating decision information into Atanassov's intuitionistic fuzzy numbers for heterogeneous multi-attribute group decision making

The aim of this paper is to propose a new aggregation method to solve heterogeneous MAGDM problem which involves real numbers, interval numbers, triangular fuzzy numbers (TFNs), trapezoidal fuzzy numbers (TrFNs), linguistic values and Atanassov's intuitionistic fuzzy numbers (AIFNs). Firstly, motivated by the relative closeness of technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS), we propose a new general method for aggregating crisp values, TFNs, TrFNs and linguistic values into AIFNs. Thus all the group decision matrices for each alternative which involves heterogeneous information are transformed into an Atanassov's intuitionistic fuzzy decision matrix which only contains AIFNs. To determine the attribute weights, a multiple objective Atanassov's intuitionistic fuzzy programming model is constructed and solved by converting it into a linear program. Subsequently, comparison analyses demonstrate that the proposed aggregated technology can overcome the drawbacks of existing methods. An example about cloud computing service evaluation is given to verify the practicality and effectiveness of the proposed method.     

Some induced intuitionistic fuzzy aggregation operators applied to multi-attribute group decision making

In this paper, we define various induced intuitionistic fuzzy aggregation operators, including induced intuitionistic fuzzy ordered weighted averaging (OWA) operator, induced intuitionistic fuzzy hybrid averaging (I-IFHA) operator, induced interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy OWA operator, and induced interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy hybrid averaging (I-IIFHA) operator. We also establish various properties of these operators. And then, an approach based on I-IFHA operator and intuitionistic fuzzy weighted averaging (WA) operator is developed to solve multi-attribute group decision-making (MAGDM) problems. In such problems, attribute weights and the decision makers' (DMs') weights are real numbers and attribute values provided by the DMs are intuitionistic fuzzy numbers (IFNs), and an approach based on I-IIFHA operator and interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy WA operator is developed to solve MAGDM problems where the attribute values provided by the DMs are interval-valued IFNs. Furthermore, induced intuitionistic fuzzy hybrid geometric operator and induced interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy hybrid geometric operator are proposed. Finally, a numerical example is presented to illustrate the developed approaches.     

A projection-based compromising method for multiple criteria decision analysis with interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy information

The purpose of this paper is to develop a projection-based compromising method for addressing multiple criteria decision-making problems based on interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy sets. The concept of projections considers not only the distance but also the included angle between evaluative ratings of alternative actions with respect to a criterion. In the interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy context, this paper determines the respective projections of the evaluative ratings of each alternative on the positive-ideal and negative-ideal solutions and explores several essential properties. Next, this paper introduces the concepts of projection-based compromising indices and comprehensive compromising indices and further investigates relevant theorems for supporting the usefulness of these indices. Additionally, this paper proposes the projection-based comparative index and the comprehensive comparative index to serve as benchmark values for the comparison purpose. The improvement percentage of the comprehensive compromising value is acquired to determine the priority order of the alternatives, including the complete ranking order and the approval status for each alternative. The feasibility and the applicability of the proposed method are validated with an application problem of watershed site selection. Finally, several comparative analyses are conducted to verify the effectiveness and advantages of the proposed method over other relevant compromising decision-making methods.     

A new multiple criteria decision making method based on intuitionistic fuzzy information

The risk attitude of a decision maker is considered in the decision process. Inspired by mean-variance type utility functions in the financial risk management, a new class of decision functions are defined based on the weighted score function and the weighted accuracy function in the intuitionistic fuzzy setting. By choosing a suitable parameter value, the decision maker’s risk attitude can be flexibly reflected by our decision function. The new method can be applied for both the exactly known and partly known criteria weight situations. For the latter case, it is only necessary to solve one linear programming problem. The developed models and algorithms are then extended to multiple criteria decision making problems with the interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy information. Numerical examples are provided to illustrate the practicality, flexibility and efficiency of our new algorithms.     

基于区间直觉模糊集的模糊多目标群决策

为提高数据决策的准确性,结合区间直觉模糊集理论,对模糊多目标群决策算法进行优化。并针对部分权重信息并不一定完整的情况,利用迭代计算的方式向最优决策逐步逼近。实例显示,该算法具有时间复杂度低、便于计算机实现等特点,并说明了算法的有效性和准确性。     

Interval programming method for hesitant fuzzy multi-attribute group decision making with incomplete preference over alternatives

The aim of this study is to employ the main structure of LINMAP (LINear programming technique for Multidimensional Analysis of Preference) to propose an interval programming method for solving multi-attribute group decision making (MAGDM) problems in which the ratings of alternatives are taken as hesitant fuzzy elements (HFEs) and all pair-wise comparison judgments over alternatives are represented by interval numbers. The contribution of this study is fivefold: (1) we define the new consistency and inconsistency indices; (2) we construct an interval programming model to determine the hesitant fuzzy positive ideal solution and the optimal weights of attributes, and at the same time present a decision algorithm; (3) we discuss several special cases of the proposed model in detail; (4) we show that compared with intuitionistic fuzzy LINMAP method (Li et al., 2010), the proposed approach reveals more useful information including the interval preference information, and does not need to transform HFEs into intuitionistic fuzzy numbers but directly deals with MAGDM problems and thus obtains better final decision results; and (5) we demonstrate the applicability and implementation process of the proposed approach by using an energy project selection example.     

基于IFN 输入的复杂系统关联MCGDM方法

考虑现有直觉模糊熵公理化定义存在的不足,提出改进直觉模糊熵的公理化定义及其计算公式;同时,定义广义幂均算子,验证其相关性质,给出确定幂方参数的方法,并将其推广至广义直觉模糊幂均算子;在以直觉模糊数(IFN)为信息输入的复杂系统框架内,针对决策者及准则之间均存在交互关联关系且权重信息完全未知的多准则群决策(MCGDM)问题,提出基于直觉模糊熵与广义直觉模糊幂均算子的关联MCGDM方法。案例分析表明,所提出的方法是可行且有效的。     

连续区间直觉乘法集结算子及其在群决策中的应用*

基于连续有序加权几何（C-OWG）算子提出了连续区间直觉乘法有序加权几何（C-IVIMOWG）算子。而后,基于C-IVIMOWG算子提出新的区间直觉乘法数序关系判断准则。为了集结区间直觉乘法数组,提出了加权连续区间直觉乘法有序加权几何（WC-IVIMOWG）算子,研究了其基本性质,并提出了基于WC-IVIMOWG算子与兼容测度的群决策方法。最后,通过实例分析来说明WC-IVIMOWG算子应用于群决策中的有效性和适用性。